Apple's iOS 13 operating system, which will likely be previewed this summer at Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference, will include a number of major updates that iOS users have been desiring for years.
According to Bloomberg, iOS 13 will include a dark mode to match the dark mode that was first introduced on macOS with macOS Mojave. It will allow for "easier nighttime viewing."
Improvements to the CarPlay interface are expected, and many iPad-specific upgrades are in the works. Apple will introduce a new Home screen, an option to tab through multiple pages of a single app as you can do in a web browser, and improvements to file management.
Previous rumors have suggested Apple will also introduce a multitasking feature for displaying two windows of the same app side by side, and Apple is expected to expand the availability of its cross-platform apps initiative to developers, making it easier to port apps created for iOS to macOS.
Apple is planning on introducing triple-lens cameras in its 2019 iPhone lineup, reports Bloomberg, confirming many triple-lens camera rumors that we've previously heard.
Like The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg says the followup to the iPhone XS Max will feature a triple-lens camera arrangement, with the iPhone XS and iPhone XR successors to use dual-lens camera arrangements. The third camera will allow for a larger field of view, a wider zoom range, and it will capture more pixels.
A rendering of a triple-lens iPhone prototype Apple is said to be working on
Apple is apparently working on a feature that would use that extra pixel data to provide tools for automatically repairing a photo or a video to fit in a subject that "may have accidentally been cut off from the initial shot." An enhanced version of Live Photos is also in the works, increasing the length of the attached video to six seconds.
Some versions of the 2019 iPhones Apple is testing use a USB-C connector instead of a Lightning port, which could mean Apple plans to switch from Lightning to USB-C at some point. An upgraded A-series processor and a new Face ID sensor are planned, but the devices are expected to look similar to this year's model.
iPhone camera technology will become even more advanced starting in 2020 as part of a push to further Apple's augmented reality ambitions. According to Bloomberg, the company will debut laser-powered time-of-flight 3D cameras that will result in significant improvements to AR experiences on the iPhone.
A time-of-flight (ToF) camera system uses a laser to calculate the time that it takes for the laser to bounce off of objects in a room, using the data to create an accurate 3D image of the surrounding area. This allows for more accurate depth perception and better placement of virtual objects, and it will also result in photos better able to capture depth.
Bloomberg says that the camera will be able to scan areas up to 15 feet from the device. Apple's front-facing TrueDepth camera uses 3D technology but because it's infrared and not laser-powered, it only works at distances of 25 to 50 centimeters. Sony could be Apple's supplier for the new system, with Apple in talks with Sony over sensor tests.
Prior to when the new iPhones are released, we could see the first appearance of the 3D camera system in an iPad Pro upgrade planned for spring 2020. Apple is not planning a major iPad Pro update for 2019.
There were originally some rumors suggesting Apple would introduce a 3D camera system in its 2019 iPhones, but reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that wouldn't happen as Apple needs 5G connectivity, augmented reality glasses, and a more powerful Apple Maps database to truly take advantage of the AR capabilities afforded by a ToF camera.
Bloomberg confirms that Apple was indeed aiming to put the 3D camera system in this year's iPhones, but ultimately delayed its plans.
Apple's 2020 iPhones will also feature triple-lens arrangements, improved photo capturing tools, and more powerful processors. Bloomberg suggests it could be a prelude to an AR headset, and past rumors have indicated Apple could launch that device as early as 2020.
According to TechCrunch, Google has been distributing an app called "Screenwise Meter" using the enterprise certificate installation method since 2012.
Google has been privately inviting users aged 18 and up (or 13 for those part of a family group) to download Screenwise Meter, an app that is designed to collect information on internet usage, including details on how long a site is visited to apps that are downloaded.
By asking Screenwise Meter users to download the app using an enterprise certificate, Google is able to bypass App Store rules that prevent apps from gathering this kind of data from iPhone users.
Apple just this morning revoked Facebook's enterprise certificate for this exact same activity, which has rendered all of Facebook's internal apps nonoperational and has created chaos at Facebook's headquarters. Facebook employees are not able to use any of the internal apps that they rely on to get work done.
The Screenwise Meter app that Google uses lets users earn gift cards for sharing their traffic and app data. It is part of Google's Cross Media Panel and Google Opinion Rewards programs that provide rewards to people for installing tracking software on their smartphones, web browsers, routers, and TVs.
According to TechCrunch, Google is more forthcoming about the kind of data that it's collecting than Facebook, but that doesn't change the fact that Google is using an app installation method that appears to violate Apple's enterprise certificate rules in the same way the Facebook Research app did.
Additionally, people who install these kinds of apps for rewards may not fully understand the extent of the data that's collected.
Putting the not-insignificant issues of privacy aside -- in short, many people lured by financial rewards may not fully take in what it means to have a company fully monitoring all your screen-based activity -- and the implications of what extent tech businesses are willing to go to to amass more data about users to get an edge on competitors, Google Screenwise Meter for iOS appears to violate Apple's policy.
Apple and Google have not yet commented on the Screenwise Meter app, but if Apple does decide that Google is also violating its enterprise rules, which clearly state that the enterprise program is for distributing internal employee apps only, Google too could see the enterprise certificate used for the Screenwise app revoked.
Apple could also punish Google in the same way that it punished Facebook by revoking all of the company's internal apps that use the same certificate.
Update: Google has issued an apology and has disabled its Screenwise Meter app on iOS devices. "The Screenwise Meter iOS app should not have operated under Apple's developer enterprise program -- this was a mistake and we apologize. We have disabled this app on iOS devices. This app is completely voluntary and always has been. We've been upfront with users about the way we use their data in this app, and we have no access to encrypted data in apps and on devices, and users can opt out of the program at any time."
The United States FBI this week accused a Chinese citizen working for Apple of attempting to steal trade secrets that are related to the company's autonomous vehicle program, reports NBC Bay Area.
Apple launched an investigation into the employee, Jizhong Chen, when another employee spotted him taking photographs "in a sensitive work space." Apple Global Security employees searched his personal computer and found "thousands" of Apple files, including manuals, schematics, photographs, and diagrams.
Chen had recently applied for a position with a China-based autonomous vehicle company that is a direct Apple competitor. Chen was arrested a day before he was set to fly to China. Apple in a statement said that it is working with the authorities.
"Apple takes confidentiality and the protection of our IP very seriously," the company said in a statement Tuesday. "We are working with authorities on this matter and are referring all questions to the FBI."
Interestingly, at least one of the photographs Chen took depicted an assembly drawing of an Apple-designed wiring harness for an autonomous vehicle, suggesting Apple's work does indeed go beyond simple autonomous software.
Apple's autonomous car plans have been up in the air for the last few years because the project has been restructured several times, has been put under new leadership, and many employees have been laid off or moved to other areas of the company.
There has been some question as to whether the Cupertino company is still planning a full autonomous car or if its focus has shifted to autonomous software, but the most recent rumors indicate a car is in the works with a launch planned for 2023 to 2025.
This is not the first time an employee has been caught trying to steal secrets from Apple's car team. Back in July, the FBI charged former Apple employee Xiaolang Zhang with theft of trade secrets for stealing hardware and software that included prototypes and detailed prototype requirements.
Facebook is no longer able to use or distribute important internal iOS apps after Apple disabled the Enterprise Certificate Facebook was abusing to surreptitiously gather data from iOS users right under Apple's nose.
Since 2016, Facebook has been paying teens and adults $20 per month to install a data gathering "Facebook Research" app that harvested all kinds of sensitive details from participants.
Facebook abused its enterprise certificate to get customers to install a "Facebook Research app
Apple had already banned Facebook's attempts to gather data through the Onavo VPN app, so Facebook used its enterprise certificate - provided to companies to install and manage internal apps for employees - to get participants to sideload the Facebook Research app, bypassing the App Store and Apple's oversight.
Facebook yesterday said that it was not violating Apple's enterprise rules, but as it turns out, Facebook was wrong. Apple this morning revoked Facebook's enterprise and said the social network had clearly violated the Enterprise Developer Program.
We designed our Enterprise Developer Program solely for the internal distribution of apps within an organization. Facebook has been using their membership to distribute a data-collecting app to consumers, which is a clear breach of their agreement with Apple. Any developer using their enterprise certificates to distribute apps to consumers will have their certificates revoked, which is what we did in this case to protect our users and their data.
Facebook's revoked certificate wasn't just used for the Facebook Research app. According to The Verge, Facebook needed that certificate to run all of its internal apps, and with access revoked, none of those apps are working.
That means Facebook isn't able to distribute internal iOS apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger for testing purposes, and internal employee apps for purposes like food and transportation are nonfunctional.
All of the apps that used the certificate "simply don't launch on employees' phones anymore," and Facebook is said to be treating the issue as a critical problem internally.
After the certificate was revoked, Facebook this morning said that it would shut down its Facebook Research app, though the company defended it and claimed that those who participated went through a "clear on-boarding process." The Facebook Research app for Android continues to be available.
Facebook is not going to be able to properly operate and distribute iOS apps on a wide scale basis without access to its certificate, so it's not clear how this situation will play out. Apple's tools are essential for internal apps, though Facebook will likely still be able to use alternatives like TestFlight if the certificate isn't reinstated.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has been highly critical of Facebook's lack of respect for user privacy in the past, and the two companies have had a dispute over the Onavo app, but this is the first time that Apple has directly punished Facebook and shut down one of its illicit activities.
Update: Facebook says it is "working closely" with Apple to reinstate access to internal apps. Employees, meanwhile, are said to be angry and unable to do their work without the apps.
Update 2: In a statement to The New York Times, Facebook says that Apple has restored its Enterprise Certificate. "We have had our Enterprise Certification, which enables our internal employee applications, restored. We are in the process of getting our internal apps up and running. To be clear, this didn’t have an impact on our consumer-facing services."
DirecTV Now today reported that it lost 267,000 subscribers during the fourth quarter of 2018, causing the service to dip from 1.8 million subscribers in Q1 2018 to 1.6 million in Q4 (via TechCrunch). Despite the decline, DirecTV Now is still at the forefront of the streaming TV market, second to SlingTV as of last fall.
In AT&T's fourth quarter earnings report, the company attributed this loss to the closure of several discount bundles that were heavily featured on the service's website, and shared online. This includes the popular Apple TV bundle (which expired in June 2018) and a few Roku deals.
The company attributed the decline to the end of promotional package pricing, which sometimes saw the service priced as low as $10 per month for an introductory period. It had also offered device giveaways – like Roku streaming sticks or Apple TV boxes – to encourage sign-ups.
AT&T says its “discounted introductory offers ended,” which resulted in the dramatic loss.
At its peak, the DirecTV Now deal for Apple TV required you to prepay for three months of the streaming TV service for about $105. Once you did this, AT&T would send you a 32GB Apple TV 4K at no cost. In essence, customers were paying $105 for a 32GB Apple TV 4K, down from around $170, and getting three months to try out DirecTV Now as a bonus.
Of course, you could still cancel DirecTV Now before those three months ended and not pay to continue using the service, and it appears that's what many people did last year. Although DirecTV Now has a large channel lineup, it also has numerous problems with its service, which also likely led to subscriber churn noted in this week's earnings report. This includes a barebones cloud DVR with low storage and unreliable recordings, various performance issues, outages, and more.
AT&T also raised the price of DirecTV Now last summer, increasing every tier by $5/month to stay "in line with the market." This increased DirecTV Now's "Live a Little" plan from $35/month to $40/month, matching rival services like Hulu with Live TV, which starts at $40/month, and YouTube TV, which also raised to $40/month to compete with Hulu.
Although many were hoping that the Apple TV offer would return in the fall of 2018 as it did years prior, AT&T never resurfaced the deal.
The Music Business Association today announced that Beats 1 anchor Zane Lowe will be the keynote speaker at its 2019 conference on May 5 at 5 p.m. local time. The event will take place at the JW Marriott in Nashville.
In addition to his Beats 1 role, Lowe is the Global Head of Artist Relations for Apple Music. The Grammy-nominated producer and DJ has been part of Apple Music since its inception in June 2015, building upon an established career in music broadcasting at MTV, XFM, and BBC Radio 1 in the United Kingdom.
The conference will also feature a series of digital music workshops hosted by Apple Music, Amazon, Pandora, Spotify, SoundCloud, and YouTube and interviews with other music industry executives. Registration is open now.
In related news, Apple during its earnings call yesterday revealed that Apple Music now has over 50 million paying subscribers. This was the first update on that front since May 2018, when Apple Music had 50 million paying and trial subscribers combined. Spotify had 87 million paying subscribers as of September 2018.
Popular Apple Watch heart rate monitoring app Cardiogram today launched a new premium service that includes data sharing options and a cross-platform Family Mode designed to allow remote monitoring of a loved one's wearable data.
If a person with an Android phone has an aging parent with an Apple Watch and wants to keep an eye on the parent's wearable data for health reasons, for example, that's possible with the new cross-platform mode.
Data shared includes heart rate, step counts, diagnostic tests, habits, and more. There's also a new Share with Doctor feature that lets you get a PDF of historical Cardiogram data so it can be emailed to a doctor or printed out.
Both Share with Doctor and Family Mode require the new Cardiogram Premium service. Cardiogram Premium is priced at $14.99 per month or $99.99 per year.
Cardiogram says that its new premium Family Mode was introduced because of requests from customers who wanted to be able to keep an eye on their loved ones' health. The Family Mode option works with Apple Watch, Garmin, and Google's WearOS.
Amazon and B&H Photo this week have introduced the first straight price discount on Apple's just-released Smart Battery Case for iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR. The sales are discounting the price of the new accessory by about $11.
The cases are priced the same across Amazon and B&H Photo. Check out the full list below, and note that Apple sells each case for $129.00 on its website.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
Foxconn is once again changing plans for its upcoming Wisconsin-based plant in the United States, according to a new report out today by Reuters. Originally set to produce large television displays, and then small to medium displays for smartphones, the location will now pivot to become largely focused on research and development.
Foxconn intends to hire "mostly engineers and researchers" instead of manufacturing workers at the Wisconsin plant. The plans to build smartphone displays, for companies like Apple, have either been greatly scaled back or shelved completely. This information comes from Louis Woo, assistant to Foxconn CEO Terry Gou.
Although the company has yet to formally announce this pivot, Woo says that Foxconn is "not building a factory" in Wisconsin at this point. According to Woo, the steep cost of making advanced screens for TV sets and other devices in the United States led to the decision.
Instead, Woo notes that Foxconn's more profitable solution is to make LCD panels in greater China and Japan, ship them to Mexico for final assembly, and import the finished products to the United States.
Rather than a focus on LCD manufacturing, Foxconn wants to create a “technology hub” in Wisconsin that would largely consist of research facilities along with packaging and assembly operations, Woo said. It would also produce specialized tech products for industrial, healthcare, and professional applications, he added.
“In Wisconsin we’re not building a factory. You can’t use a factory to view our Wisconsin investment,” Woo said.
The Wisconsin project was announced at the White House in 2017, and was used as an example by the Trump administration of a foreign company extending its manufacturing business into the United States. Now, Woo says that three-quarters of the Wisconsin plant will be staffed by people in R&D and design fields, or "knowledge" positions, rather than blue collar manufacturing jobs.
At the time, Foxconn said it would grow to employ as many as 13,000 workers at the site. In recent weeks, the company confirmed it had slowed its pace of hiring, down to about 5,200 people by the end of 2020. Now, a source within the company claims that figure is closer to 1,000 workers to start off. It's unclear if Foxconn still plans to grow to the full 13,000 workforce, and if so when that will happen.
Apple today announced that, starting February 1, Apple Music subscribers can access Apple Music on any American Airlines flight in the United States equipped with Viasat satellite technology with no Wi-Fi purchase required.
American Airlines is the first commercial airline to provide exclusive access to Apple Music through complimentary inflight Wi-Fi. This applies to the iPhone and likely extends to the iPad, Mac or PC, and Android smartphones.
Samsung has started developing what it says is the first one terabyte embedded Universal Flash Storage (eUFS) storage chip, powered by the company's fifth-generation V-NAND.
Most Android phones include a microSD slot that lets owners upgrade the internal capacity of their device, but the new 1TB chip will offer storage capacity levels comparable to notebooks without the need for additional memory cards, according to Samsung.
"The 1TB eUFS is expected to play a critical role in bringing a more notebook-like user experience to the next generation of mobile devices," said Cheol Choi, EVP of Memory Sales & Marketing at Samsung Electronics.
"What's more, Samsung is committed to assuring the most reliable supply chain and adequate production quantities to support the timely launches of upcoming flagship smartphones in accelerating growth of the global mobile market."
In addition to providing higher capacity, the eUFS technology is also designed to be faster than standard solid-state storage and microSD cards, offering a 1,000MB/s sequential read speed and a random read speed of 58,000 IOPS, despite being the same package size as the company's 512GB flash chips.
Samsung says the random speeds allow for high-speed continuous shooting at 960 frames per second and will enable smartphone users to take full advantage of the multi-camera capabilities in today and tomorrow’s flagship models.
Samsung began mass-producing its 512GB storage chips in December 2017 and unveiled the technology in its new flagship phones the following year. Assuming a similar rollout, Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S10 will likely come with a 1TB storage capacity option, thanks to the company's new eUFS technology.
Meanwhile, Samsung plans to expand the production of its fifth-generation 512GB V-NAND at its Pyeongtaek plant in Korea throughout the first half of 2019 to address the anticipated strong demand for the 1TB eUFS from mobile device manufacturers around the world.
As a leader in NAND type memory solutions, Samsung has been supplying Apple with flash memory chips since 2017. While this development seems most likely to affect the memories used in Apple's future iPhone and iPad products, Samsung's memory could conceivably show up in future Macs, which have become heavily reliant on flash storage.
Apple's 2018 iPad Pro models are available with 1TB storage, the highest capacity offered in an iPhone or iPad to date.
The repair website lowered the price of its kits in late 2017 to match Apple's discounted iPhone battery replacement fee of $29, which ended on December 31, 2018. Apple now charges $49 to replace the battery in the iPhone 6 through iPhone 8 Plus and $69 for the iPhone X and newer outside of warranty.
Apple had lowered its battery replacement fee after controversy erupted about a performance management feature it quietly introduced in iOS 10.2.1. The feature, when enabled, has the potential of slowing down older iPhone models with degraded batteries when necessary to prevent unexpected shutdowns.
iFixit's kits include all of the tools necessary to open up an iPhone and swap in a new battery for those willing to give it a try. If the idea of opening up your iPhone sounds uncomfortable to you, it is probably best to stick to the Genius Bar.
Note that do-it-yourself iPhone battery replacements can have warranty implications.
Facebook has said it will end a controversial market research program in which the company paid users to install a mobile app that tracked their activity and data.
In a statement given to TechCrunch and other websites, the company said that its "Facebook Research" app, which paid volunteers between the ages of 13 and 35 up to $20 a month to access nearly all their data, would no longer be available on iOS.
The news came just hours after TechCrunch's exposé on the Facebook app, which used an enterprise certificate on iPhones to get people to sideload the app and skirt Apple's App Store rules. In the same announcement, the company also took issue with the way its "Project Atlas" program had been reported, claiming:
Key facts about this market research program are being ignored. Despite early reports, there was nothing 'secret' about this; it was literally called the Facebook Research App. It wasn't 'spying' as all of the people who signed up to participate went through a clear on-boarding process asking for their permission and were paid to participate. Finally, less than 5 percent of the people who chose to participate in this market research program were teens, all of them with signed parental consent forms.
In August 2018, Apple forced Facebook to remove its Onavo VPN app from the App Store because Facebook was using it to track user activity and data across multiple apps, which is a violation of Apple's App Store policy.
According to TechCrunch, a significant amount of code in the banned Onavo VPN app overlaps with the company's Facebook Research app, which remains available on Android devices.
Update: Apple revoked Facebook's certificate for the app, according to a statement it provided to Recode:
We designed our Enterprise Developer Program solely for the internal distribution of apps within an organization. Facebook has been using their membership to distribute a data-collecting app to consumers, which is a clear breach of their agreement with Apple. Any developer using their enterprise certificates to distribute apps to consumers will have their certificates revoked, which is what we did in this case to protect our users and their data.
Houston lawyer Larry Williams II today filed a lawsuit against Apple claiming that his iPhone allowed an unknown person to listen in on sworn testimony during a client deposition.
He is suing Apple for unspecified punitive damages for negligence, product liability, misrepresentation, and warranty breach. The bug, says Williams, violates the privacy of a person's "most intimate conversations without consent."
The FaceTime bug in question was widely publicized yesterday after making the rounds on social media. By exploiting a bug in Group FaceTime, a person could force a FaceTime connection with another person, providing access to a user's audio and sometimes video even when the FaceTime call was not accepted.
There was no way to avoid malicious FaceTime calls forced to connect in this manner short of turning off FaceTime, but after the issue received attention, Apple disabled Group FaceTime server side, and the feature remains unavailable. With Group FaceTime turned off, the exploit is not available and no one is in danger of being spied on via their Apple devices through the FaceTime bug.
Apple is planning to implement a fix via a software update later this week, but the company has not commented on how long this bug was available before it was widely shared. Group FaceTime has been available since iOS 12.1 was released in October.
A woman whose teenage son initially discovered the bug says that she contacted Apple multiple times starting on January 20, and even sent a video demonstrating the issue, but she received no response from the company.
Apple in August 2018 forced Facebook to remove its Onavo VPN app from the App Store, because Facebook was using it to track user activity and data across multiple apps, something that violate's Apple's App Store policies.
As it turns out, Facebook has found an underhanded way to skirt Apple's rules and get people to continue installing its VPN -- paying them.
TechCrunch this afternoon exposed Facebook's "Project Atlas" program, in which Facebook paid people -- adults and teenagers -- to install a "Facebook Research" VPN that is similar to the Onavo VPN app.
As of 2016, Facebook has been secretly offering people aged 13 to 35 up to $20 per month along with referral fees to sideload the Facebook Research app using an enterprise certificate on iPhone. Enterprise certificates like this are designed to allow companies to distribute internal corporate apps and give full root access to a device.
To hide its involvement, Facebook has been using beta testing services like Applause, BetaBound and uTest to recruit participants to install Facebook Research.
By getting people to sideload an app this way through an enterprise certificate, Facebook has access to data that includes private messages in social media apps, chats from instant messaging apps (including photos and videos), emails, web searches, web browsing activity, and ongoing location information. It's not clear if Facebook is accessing this data, but it could, according to security researcher Will Strafach, who TechCrunch consulted for this piece.
"The fairly technical sounding 'install our Root Certificate' step is appalling," Strafach tells us. "This hands Facebook continuous access to the most sensitive data about you, and most users are going to be unable to reasonably consent to this regardless of any agreement they sign, because there is no good way to articulate just how much power is handed to Facebook when you do this."
The terms of service for the Facebook Research app suggest Facebook was collecting information about the smartphone apps on a participant's phone and how and when those apps are used. Facebook also said it would collect data about activities and content within the apps, and information about internet browsing history. There's even a line suggesting Facebook collects data even when an app uses encryption or from within a secure browser session.
Facebook confirmed the program in a statement provided to TechCrunch and reportedly said that the Facebook Research app was "in line with Apple's Enterprise Certificate program," though that does not seem to be the case based on Apple's Enterprise Certificate policy.
"Like many companies, we invite people to participate in research that helps us identify things we can be doing better. Since this research is aimed at helping Facebook understand how people use their mobile devices, we've provided extensive information about the type of data we collect and how they can participate. We don't share this information with others and people can stop participating at any time."
Apple has been made aware of the issue, but declined to provide a comment to TechCrunch. It's not clear how the Cupertino company will handle the situation, but as TechCrunch points out, Apple CEO Tim Cook has been highly critical of Facebook and its privacy violations. Apple could potentially block the Facebook Research app or revoke Facebook's permission to distribute internal apps entirely.
Apple shipped an estimated 65.9 million iPhones during the first fiscal quarter of 2019 (aka the fourth calendar quarter of 2018) according to new data shared today by Strategy Analytics.
As of this quarter, Apple is no longer providing a breakdown of unit sales of the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, so we will not have concrete data on how well the iPhone is selling going forward.
Apple in Q1 2018 sold 77.3 million iPhones, which would mean Apple sold 11.4 million fewer iPhones in Q1 2019 if Strategy Analytics' estimates are correct, marking a 15 percent decline in sales year-over-year.
Global iPhone shipments fell sharply, due to high retail pricing, unfavorable foreign exchange rates, intense competition from rivals like Huawei, battery replacement programs driving longer ownership cycles, diminished carrier subsidies in some developed markets, and flagging demand in some emerging markets.
Apple's Q1 2019 iPhone revenue was $52 billion, down from $61 billion in the year-ago quarter, also a 15 percent decline. The drop in iPhone revenue led to total revenue of $84.31 billion, down from $88.3 billion in Q1 2018.
Despite the decline in iPhone sales, which Apple CEO Tim Cook has attributed to weakness in China and fewer upgrades, Q1 2019 was Apple's second-best in terms of both revenue and profit, coming in behind only the first fiscal quarter of 2018.
Samsung has started developing what 
Facebook has said it will end a 
